Computer hacking archive at TNMOC

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How the 1980’s hack of Prince Philip’s mailbox led to UK anti-hacking legislation

The archive of a hacking case that made computing legal history in the UK and changed all our lives has been deposited at The National Museum of Computing (TNMOC) by Robert Schifreen, the ‘white hat’ at the centre of the 1980’s controversy.

The archive tells the story of Schifreen’s two-year legal ordeal following his quite open hack of Prestel, BT’s pre-internet public online system, and his demonstration of his ability to access Prince Philip’s Prestel mailbox. With no anti-hacking law in existence at the time, the archive gives details of the passage of what turned out to be in effect a test case through three courts ending in Schifreen’s acquittal in the House of Lords in 1987.

Included in the archive are Schifreen’s 1980’s hacking password book, transcripts of his interviews with police, legal correspondence, the Jury Bundle and a substantial number of press cuttings.

In presenting the archive, Robert Schifreen explained the context of 1980’s hacking to an audience at TNMOC. In 1985, the World Wide Web did not exist, home computing was taking off, Prestel, one of the first public online services had become available, but there was no real awareness of the need for computing security and no law explicitly against computer hacking.

Schifreen, aged 22 at the time, was one of a group of sociable, skilled and inquisitive hackers who, without malicious intent, collected user names and passwords and investigated computer databases not supposedly open to the public.

Schifreen explained: “Hackers in those days never started until 6pm because it was so expensive to go online with a dial-up connection before that. But 6pm was a significant start-time because the Prestel security staff had gone home and weren’t there to deal with automated messages telling them that there had been three unsuccessful attempts at a log-on to Prestel. I could read the messages, delete them to cover my tracks before security arrived for work next morning. In effect I was a Prestel System Manager. I even managed to hack Prince Philip’s Prestel Mailbox and was quite open about it.

“I made no secret of what I was doing. It was 1985. The Computer Misuse Act came into existence in 1990. I was doing nothing illegal! I phoned Prestel and told them what I could do. I thought they might give me a job. They didn’t. They called Scotland Yard.”

Initially charged and convicted of forgery at Southwark Crown Court, that decision was overturned on appeal by the Lord Chief Justice. After a further appeal by the prosecution, the Lord Chief Justice’s decision to acquit was upheld by the House of Lords.

Schifreen explained: “I think the police were quite happy that I was acquitted as it demonstrated the need for a computer hacking act of some sort. The Computer Misuse Act of 1990 resulted.”

Robert Schifreen went on to become a leading computer security consultant and now runs SecuritySmart, an IT security awareness training company.

Receiving the Archive, TNMOC Trustee Margaret Sale said: “We are extremely grateful to Robert Schifreen for donating his fascinating archive to TNMOC and giving us an insight into what now seems a very strange world in which computer security was not treated very seriously. All this happened just 30 years ago. It demonstrates vividly how computers have become a centrepiece of our lives, a transformation that our Museum aims to bring to life, especially to today’s digital natives.”

The archive at TNMOC is available to bona fide researchers. It is growing rapidly already contains the entire 45 year print history (1966-2011) of Computer Weekly, the world's first weekly computer publication, 26 years of Personal Computer World, and many other magazines, the complete ICL manufacturing archive, the entire Digital Equipment Corporation microfiche and much more.

Notes To Editors

About The National Museum of Computing

The National Museum of Computing, located on Bletchley Park, is an independent charity housing the world's largest collection of functional historic computers, including the rebuilt Colossus, the world’s first electronic computer, and the WITCH, the world's oldest working digital computer. The Museum enables visitors to follow the development of computing from the ultra-secret pioneering efforts of the 1940s through the large systems and mainframes of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, and the rise of personal computing in the 1980s and beyond.

The Museum runs a highly successful Learning Programme for schools and colleges and promotes introductions to computer coding amongst young people, especially females, to inspire the next generation of computer scientists and engineers. In 2016, Fujitsu will be creating a Fujitsu Innovation Hub in the TNMOC Classroom for visiting students and general visitors.

Outside the Easter Bytes period, the whole Museum is open to the public from 12 noon - 5pm on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, spring and summer Bank Holidays and during long school holidays. The Colossus and Tunny galleries are open daily. Public and private Guided Tours are available and bookable online – see the website or the iPhone app for details. Educational and corporate group visits are available by prior arrangement.

For more information about TNMOC and trustees, see www.tnmoc.org and follow @tnmoc on Twitter and The National Museum of Computing on Facebook and Google+. A TNMOC iPhone App is also available from the iPhone App Store.